February 15, 2016 – Two Days at Sea

We’ve been cruising southwest from San Francisco for three weeks and are reaching the end of the first segment of the 102-day voyage. Crystal Cruises titled this segment of the world cruise “Pacific Isles,” and it lived up to that, as we visited only islands -- eight of them -- along the way from San Francisco to Nouméa. With the exception of Oahu (Hawaii), these were all new visits for us; and the experiences we had reinforced the mental images most people have of beautiful South Pacific island paradises.

We departed Nouméa at 6 pm on Saturday, Feb 13, heading for Sydney. It’s about 1,100 miles between these two ports, so we had an opportunity to relax for two days at sea on board the beautiful Crystal Serenity. The first day out of Nouméa the weather was quite windy and seas were rough. Once again, water was drained out of the Seahorse Pool, and walking around ship was more difficult. Captain Vorland explained that the weather was being affected by two tropical storms – one to the north of us and the other behind us (near Fiji). Our timing was very lucky, as the storm near Fiji was causing 60 foot waves in the area in which we had just traveled several days ago. Of course, south of the equator this is Summer and the season for tropical cyclones.

Some of the opportunities we took advantage of the past two days included a backstage tour of the Galaxy Lounge (main theatre). The lead dance team captain showed us the dressing rooms, props, and staging areas backstage for about 45 minutes. It was quite cramped back there, but very organized. He answered any and all questions we had, so we gained an understanding of how this marvelous team operates. Dimitri and his wife Valentina (both from Israel) have been performing on the Crystal Serenity stage for the past nine years. Both of them are real professionals and tremendous assets/advocates for Crystal Cruises. That night we watched their performance of the “6/8 Café Jukebox Musical” show.

There was a Valentine’s Day Mixer in the Crystal Cove that we skipped. These functions end up being opportunities for the 25 or so single women on board who absolutely love ballroom dancing with the 10 Ambassador Hosts (male dance partners under contract with Crystal) who are always on the dance floor dancing with them. For the first few of these functions we found it fascinating to watch these activities; but, by now, we’ve chosen to avoid the events altogether.

A big highlight was today’s 12:00 noon Grand Gala Buffet, which was also held in the Crystal Plaza and was well attended, of course. This involved a feast of culinary masterpieces -- foods and pastries – set up on many attractively decorated buffet tables. We went through the lines, and waiters carried our plates into the Crystal Dining Room. Most of us returned for seconds. Before the buffet started, there was time set aside for guests to photograph the room and to applaud the chefs responsible for the event. We were a little late arriving, as we were attending one of the enrichment lectures in the Galaxy Lounge (theater).

Monday night’s show in the Galaxy Lounge featured Kenny Martyn, a very talented jazz clarinet player. His show was great, with a wide range of music, including songs and arrangements by Benny Goodman.

We’ve been told that 400 passengers will be disembarking in Sydney and 400 new passengers will be joining us for the next segment of the world cruise. Our tablemates Norman and Sherry will be leaving us and returning to their home in northern California; we’ll miss them. It appears to most of us that the ship has been full to this point, so we guess it will remain that way for a few more weeks.

Jim and Ginny